An examination of Ha Joon Chang's "23 Things they Don't Tell You About Capitalism". A critical examination: examining, chapter by chapter, the assumptions and arguments that Chang makes and pointing out where there are logical and conceptual errors. 

For example, Chang praises the firm economic action taken by South Korea to bolster economic growth. Entirely true, but he fails to point out that the government that had those necessary economic powers was also a quasi-fascist military dictatorship. That's not a desirable socio-political system to urge upon developing countries. Further, that same attempt to play favourites, to direct matters economic, doesn't work in more democratic places as examples like Ghana show us. 

Similarly, Chang tells us that there have been examples of government successfully uniting behind particular economic champions, companies that then grow successfully. So there have been: but that's not an argument in favour of the practice. After all, even the blind monkey occasionally finds a banana. What we want to know is whether the government attempting to pick winners works better than allowing the market to do so and there the evidence swings the other way. 

In the original book Chang told us that there's those 23 things we're not generally told about capitalism. This book attempts to refine what Chang has said. In one case he's pretty much correct in the other 22 the answer is at least more subtle than Chang lets on, in most of those the true answer is diametrically opposed to what Chang tells us.

You can download the free PDF version here.